Coming Uneglued

The following day, late evening had a shock in store for Une. Lady Une thought that her television debute was a smashing success...boy, was she wrong! That night while watching CNN, Une found out the hard way what people really thought of her.

"Welcome to Talk Back Live, the show where we get feed back from you, the viewers!" said the female talk show host. "Today we are going to talk about Lady Une: World Class Dictator or World Class ogre wench! Well, it's all one and the same, really, isn't it? Let's go to our audience to get today's comments."

Lady Une bolted upright from her chair, peeved. "OGRE?! WENCH!?" she cried. "GRRR...why do people insist on calling me that?!AAARRGGGHHH!!! I'M NOT A wenCH or an ogre!!!"

"Yes, you are!" an unseen entity said back at her.

"Get outta my head...I swear, the next person who calls me a wench, I'm gonna kick their butt!" Une ranted.

"How are you going to do that, reach into the TV and grab them? Well, at least that's an improvement from bombing their homes and killing their families." The voice retorted. "But you're still a...no, I won't say it again."

"I said shut up, you wench!" Une bellowed.

"or you'll what? Kick my butt?" she laughed. "Like you could. You can't even see me! yet. But just wait."

"Loser!" Une sneered at her...at least it made her feel better! Lady Une went to the wide screen television and watched as an audience member was making a comment.

"If you ask me...I think the wench is crazy!" said the young woman. There was applause in the background, approval from her fellow audience members. She's a crazy broad who doesn't care about anything but herself...Take over the world...pu-leeze...she needs to take her tired, fake, wannabe Princess Leia looking bod somewhere and get some counseling for her mental disorder!"

The audience applauded wildly, some were shouting comments directed at Une!

"THOSE FRIGGIN' RETARDS!" Une roared, smashing the tv screen with the golf club. Dang...that made it the fourth television set in a single month she had destroyed.

"Whoa! Temper, temper!" came that annoying voice again.

Une's glasses slipped off.

This calmed her mood as her more mellow personality suddenly took over.

"I don't know who or what you are," she said in a quieter tone, "But you're probably right. if I want people to think highly of me...I need to appeal to the masses! Show them my "sensitive" side...

To which the still unimpressed entity replied, "in other words, lie like heck!"

"What!?"

"You heard..."

"How dare you!?"

"How dare you, how dare you?" it mocked her. Finally it posed the question directly to her "How dare YOU!?"

"Don't get mad." Une said. She didn't care to provoke something she couldn't see into possibly beating her up. "You're right, we should keep our tempers. Think "sensitive, sensitive", I know how to show these people I'm not a wench."

Lady Une smiled like the wicked witch of the West. "Mmm...thats an excellent idea." She knew what she'd have to do now, and she was sure it would work. Once people saw how sensitive she could be, they'd stop calling her names. She would get to work on her master plan tomorrow, right now, though, she needed her beauty sleep.

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Elsewhere, after the show had aired, came a news announcement, that some people in Zechston were looking for a girl who had gone missing, presumed to be a runaway.

"Vanessa, or so the Zechston people have come to know her, stands five-foot 1 and three quarters, with short, straight very dark brown hair, deep dark brown eyes, and an extremely fair complexion. here is her photo."

"Blast it all!" exclaimed a viewer sitting in her front room.

"if you know of her whereabouts please contact the Zechston police. Vanessa does not speak and might be emotionally unstable. According to a Zechston citizen, she became agitated during the shocking interview with Lady Une on Dateline NBC, and ran away some time in the night. It is urgent that should you meet someone matching her description you hospitalize her and contact the proper authorities."

immediately the woman went and called information for the Zechston Police department number...because she was also looking for a girl who matched Vanessa's description.

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The next morning, Robbie came to the James family household, along with a police officer, to talk about Vanessa. They informed the James family that another woman had been looking for a girl with the same description, so there was a good possibility Vanessa would not be coming back to them.

"I don't know whether to be glad or sad." Indy piped up. "I've been her friend and helped take care of her since Robbie found her on the highway. I just hope this woman is for real and she's not...one of that demon child Une's force if you get my drift."

"No, she says this girl she's looking for has had some traumatic experiences not related to Une, but they were enough to damage her. And something else. She too, had seen Une on TV on Dateline, and she thinks Vanessa may be going after her. She says she's going to pay a visit to Une's headquarters where she hopes to help your sister, Indy, and find the young girl she's looking for. And that may very well turn out to be Vanessa." the officer stated.

"That's where I need to go," Indy determined. "Brenda probably doesn't even know I'm alive. She'll have no where to go and no way to find me unless I go."

"Indy..." Mr. James could see Indy's rage starting again, and he didn't want her doing something that might cost her life. He put a hand on her tense shoulder and looked intently at her. "That's a dangerous undertaking. Une's probably got herself surrounded with guards that would sooner kill you than look at you."

But Indy stared back at Mr. James with the kind of look that showed she was this close to exploding. Desperate, she started to half beg, half demand:

"I'm the only chance Brenda's got demmit!! and what about Vanessa? I have to know she's all right or even still alive! That little power crazed, bloodthirsty kid Une can't be allowed to make her into a slave as well - Which is what she'll do if that other woman turns out to be wrong and Vanessa's not the girl she's looking for, or if that woman just doesn't show up...for some...reason... you said yourself that Une is dangerous...But that's why somebody has to help Brenda and Vanessa! I haven't figured out the plan yet, but I have to try!!!"

It was perfectly clear, Indy had made up her mind, and nothing anyone said was going to stop her. Although the James family was terribly worried for her, they knew they really didn't have much of a choice but agree to let Indy go.

In the mean time, Lady Une made preparations for a news conference to be held at her house. This included putting ads for it on TV and in the papers, and the conference was to be broadcast simultaneously over several stations at a time. It was to be THE event of the century according to Lady Une. She was going to stun and bewitch the world into loving her and clammering to kiss her feet.

Many advertisements for the broadcast were aired, and then a couple of days later, news reporters from all over the world were gathered at Une's house to hear her out...yeah, right!

Vanessa had already been upsetting the order of things for a few days and she had prevented a lot of mistreatment that would have gone on otherwise. In fact, she had been the invisible entity who had bugged Lady Une to distraction before now. It was during the news conference that she planned to help Brenda-Sue with the escape.

Indy had bussed in from Zechston and was more than willing to help take Une down and mop up the pieces.

Finally, Une's news conference got underway just outside. Une stood on the front steps of her house. The cameras zoomed in on Une's face...not too closely, that might break the lens.

Une looked pitifully into the camera and said. "I really don't think anyone can stop the future-not even Mr. Treize."

The reporters looked at one another with puzzled expressions.

Marilee Who, A tall, bottle-blonde news woman from a KWHO affiliate questioned her. "Miss Une...I speak for all of us when I say this, but - "

I beg your pardon, Lady Une"... Marilee corrected herself, and went on. "But what the hex are you babbling about? In case you hadn't realized it, Treize has been dead for quite some time."

Applause and cheers broke out, and some of the people assembled were heard saying "Good riddance!" and other such things.

This angered Une, but she kept her cool...for now. "His Lordship had always cherished those who held on to their fighting spirit despite constant defeat..."

"Oh, boy..." said another reporter.

Une rolled her eyes at the reporter, saying the last of her short speech through clenched teeth. "...that is also why we want to be accepted by the people. It is not the victor who moves the heart of the people." Her audience was not buying it, within a short time, an ugly mob had gathered outside, which frightened her. "D-don't you people get what I'm saying?!" she cried.

"NO!!!" They shouted at her.

"Why are you so 'sensitive' all of a sudden?" questioned someone. "We know its an act...so admit it now, ya little shrew!"

"Shrew?! HOW DARE YOU CALL ME THAT, Y-YOU WELFARE REJECT!!!" she screamed at him.

Things went down hill for Une after that...people were booing and hissing at her at this point.

"Listen to me, you jackasses! What I can do, though, is to try to direct the future toward Mr. Treize's ideals. I can sacrifice my life for that purpose. I will fight and try to win! For Mr. Treize's future, and also for my own future, yes!"

"So you intend to carry on Treize's legacy of rading and pillaging for his Oz terrorist organization!" shouted another reporter who couldn't keep his cool. "He was a disgrace and so are you!"

Une was shaking with rage. "YOU're NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF LOSERS!" she ranted at them.

The mob reacted by throwing tomatoes and every known thing in the fruit and vegetable group at her. "Yikes!" She ducked when a huge watermelon flew over her head, missing it by inches. It smashed against the wooden door behind her.

It took Une a while to recover, get back on her feet, straighten her clothes and hair. and then *Splotch!* She took an eggplant right in the face.

"DAMN!!! Let me get the hex outta here!" Une cried, retreating into her house. She slammed the huge wooden door behind her, locking it.

The chant "KILL THE wench! KILL THE wench!" could still be heard from the mob outside.

Une looked around and was shocked to see an unfamiliar female figure standing in the middle of the floor, glaring at her.